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Rockford Register/1885-01-09/King Ego
﻿KING EGO. How Every body On n boa Sovereign—A. Pollahwl nuti Mob! Ablo liooturo by I'rof, Un/zcn,of Mt. Carroll— Fatso Culture vs. (lie True, A select body of listeners enjoyed one of tho finest lpctures ever delivered In Rockford at Christian Union’Mull last evening, Tho audleuce was not, largo, but select In that It used most excellent judgment iu electing to attend. Prof. Hazzen of the chair of literature and history In Mt. Carroll Seminary was the speaker and his subject was novellv outlined lu the words,1 I like that every chair might be a throne and hold a king,1'It being a p'en for culture of man’s mentality In the highest and best sense, Tho gentleman has evidently covero.l a wide r.ingo in literature In his readttig, and with a mostre-tentlve mind and an ingenious ability to cull and use the best to illustrate his point at hand, he bus arranged, In addition to an eloquent logical and convincing essay, a symposium of the sweetest selections from the great writers of past and present, Any el! M'ts to worthily outline a lecture of tbls character, which held the unflagging attentlou of the fortunate listeners forovor an hour, were futile Indeed, ’We tniiy, however, quote some of the bright thoughts picked up at random throughout. Referring to the BANKKUb ClItKIClJ VOU CIOt.D the speaker quoted a writer who says, "The terror of not succeeding, of not making money, fame, or some other figure— chiefly of not making money—Is the hell of the English race.” Said tlie speaker: This love of nnney. this almost entire absorption of time and Ulent to obtain it which characterizes our age, is the curse of civllizatloa, It m ikes the people shvea to fashion and sillv notions of living; ’causes Innumerable debts, public and prl-vate,-religious and Becular; oorru])'s ev-ory kind of service, individual, civil and military, that goes to make up rollned society and wholesome government; cle-buuclieB senators iu congress and debases ministers of state; fills places of trust aud responsibility with incompetent men and women, and brings shame and disgrace upon many who would otherwise sustain worthy aud honored names; substitutes chicanery, trickery and tact for confidence, square-dealing and talent, and proves Itself a promoter of lutomperauoe aud crime. In a word, It reverses tho true order of things, Man In his higher naturo deteriorates, sustaining wholly uncomnen-Rated a treat moral and Intellectual loss, It completely thwi\rU the democratic; Idea of “the greatest good to tho greatest number;"'for, Interest a nu'lon chielly In the making of money and the tendency will be to concentrate wealth In the hands of the few, and distribute poverty among the many. On tho other hand, make the. main object of a people the cultivation of the mind, and everybody begins to get rich. Starting then on tho proposition that It la culture alone that makea one a king, tho professor proceeded to note three KAIjSIO STANIMItns Die CUI.TUUK, The first has an orthographical peculiarity, and Is pronounced " culcliar.” It Is made up mostly of gushing sentimentalism, and Is found In nil the walks of life, but more especially among the rich and lazy and would-be aristocrats. Attaches Itself naturally to European tour-lstB;onr vigorous and active American life being somewhat uncongenial to Its teuuor nervea and fastidious taste, WearB noso-glasses as a rul«, and quite often parts Its hair In the middle, especially wheu It Is of the masculine gender, and Invariably KKKl'8 A I’OODIjR DOCl, Smiles with gracloUR appreciation at the moutlon of everything foreign, and in proportion generally to the absoluteness of Its Ignorance, Makes a show of clean linen—a very commondable feature—but always oarrles mud In the bottom of the eye. He has had no Bpeclal renresenta-tlve heretofore owing t) the dllllculty of finding one fool so big that there were not plenty more to match him, until the appearance of Oscar Wilde and Mrs. Langtry, when that trouble was obviated at once, and the question of leadership settled for tho prodent. It Is dudelsm aa applied to morals and Intellect. The moat propor name for the second standard of culture la lntellectuallam. It believes lu catering to the perveited taste of tho public, and supplying the market with that which sells best In the matter of literature. The third standard of culture may be called the purely Intellectual and Is known as tho scientific and materialistic standard Its hlghost representation consists of tine scholars, clear thinkers and noble characters. It exerts an immense Influence In the world and has an Immense following among thoso who do not Incline naturally to religion, but have a deckled scientific turn of mlud, a kind of culture essentially of the Intellect and consequently cold and exclusive—holds that we can know only matter; know only that which comes from experience or through the senses; that tbcro Is nothing roal and certain in poetic sentiment and rellclous faith. If one adhores to it studiously and follows Its teachings logically It will take him through three stages—materialism, agnosticism and atheism. Coming to true culturo, the right discipline of tho mlud together with the heart in righteousness, the speaker read an infinite number of extracts ftom the great thinkers defining man and mind in their God-liko &EpecU To Carlyle and Emerson the speaker paid tho most lavish tribute. Emerson he considered THE MOST ISM IN ENT CIIAUAOTEH America has over produced, “the Colum. bus of mcdern thought." Carlyle he called "the grand old hero of the 10th century.” The speaker Insisted that the man who soeks true culture should: ' • Discard as veritable nonsense this attempt to touch bottom on the great question of human life, which consists In dogmattzlngou the unknowable, and racking the brain to find out how to g*ge' the mural atajua of molecules, Lot him learn once, for all that the age of the quadruped ard the bipod has gone out, aud that the age of tho brain and the'neait has come in, He must shut hia ears to the endless clatter and slum completely the avalanche of shallow books and sons ttlon-al literature, on every conceivable Bub. ject, and in every imaginable form, which is yearly vomited from publication Iiousob as multitudinous, and more mischievous, than were the locusts of Egypt; and he must read the beBt hooka, that he may think the beat thought}, No doubt eighty percent, of ALT, THE HOOKS YKAW.Y I’UIIMSflED, aaide from those of fiction, aro worthless, and will die and be forgotten before the generation goes out In which they were written. Pull ninety per cent, of fiction ia trash, and one-half of this great fraction actually pernicious, and often vulgar, and ought to be suppressed; and some of their authors sent to the penitentiary, He must also guard himself against certain debasing influences of what Is called American journalism. Now the Idea Is to tickle the ear of a vain and empty headed populace, that delights In sensations, gossip and scandal. To day assuming with great gusto, Independence In poll'ics; to-morrow daugllng at the tall of some inveterate faction; nextday willingly subsidized to roll In the mud; and at oil times ready and willing to support any Interest or caupe, good, bad or Indifferent, that will pay the most money, in order to enable the proprietor to build fine seaside residences, own fast horses, and gad over to Europe in luxury and riot. Let man have a purpose In hlsreadihg. If It really suits him to think of God aB simply an "atom manufacturer11 and a ‘ peodantlo drill eorgeant,1’ that It is throw- ing appi\>brlum upon matter to talk of a creator or a thing created ; that he was an ■ eestored by a monkey and the end of )He is to find out that great fact and then die, and like "streaks of morning clouds melt Into the’Infinite azure of the past’.1—ho should s'ay In his reading with Prof, Huxley, Tyndal, Spencer aud Mr. Frederick Harrison, until that Interesting event takes place. But if ho would feel that life Is something more than simply living to wear out his boots and to utul the best things wllh which to fill his belly and clothe his back—that man la an expression of a divine Intelligence— then he should read Shakespeare, Mlltm, Wordr-wc rth, Coleridge, Burns, Carlyle, 'IViiny-foii, Brownlug’and Emerson, who wrote from tho experience of earth and by the lappiratlon of heaven. Then again, If he Is captivated by the cheap plea of necessity, or In other words If In is satisfied with the evidence that a "bird has not flown over a desnrt because it has left no footprints on the sand”—then he should read George E lot and the far lesser I ights of the necessitarian school. But if he would believe the better and tho opposlto doctrine, that good, on this earth, may be and often Is— “Tim 1‘in'liiln pOfil of Ill, To inui^n of miltin', ulus lo with IiIh evil Hliir." Acd notwithstanding ho start from the lowest strata of humanity, he may plant hh feet on the highest plane of nc‘ual goodness and moral worth; thon ho should read Dickens, Scott, Thackery and Hugo, who have'taught errand lessons o? encouragement and good chcor, and have shown how Inadequate, falpe nod futile are the cobweb theories and puny limitations of the so-called "scientific” method lu treating the grout problem of man. Can any good come out of Nazareth '/ Is the peg of Incredulity upon which materialism and the positive philosophy hangs today for Its life. And then again, if ho is satisfied to be tossed to and' fro, and carried about by every wind that blows, to be forever wandering about In the quicksands of doubt and uucertalnty, ofemlless agitation and demagogical babble, like a turkey buzzard In mid-ocean, circling the air for a foothold, or If he would possess his soul lu peace by foodlng his mind upon wonderfully eloquent and fascinating flights of oratory, wherein the argument offends the reason as much as the language charms the sens«, then he should run tlm entire gamut of that crowd from Tom Paine to Bob lugersoll. And furthermore, If his greatest happiness consists In being a sycophant and a toady and his chief delight, in his political action, Is fo put himself in the attitude of a drcup-rlder'a monkey and await in perfect composure and resignation the crack of the rlngmuster’8 whip, thon ha should read the lives of the Camero'iB and study the speoches of Koscoe CJonkllng the rest of his life, But if ho would learn of governments among men and whatconstltutes an exalted citizenship; If he would know the germ of all political truths and principles and the application of them to the meas-ures of administration; if he would discern the genius and ca*eh the spirit of our grand American Republic, and realize with what marvelous adaptation It fills a place in the purposes. of heaven to uplift tho tace—then he Should keep ever before him tlm example and words of Washington, of Lincoln and study diligently the works of Burke and Webster, tho greatest lights and grandest luminaries In political philosophy, The Unity Club are t) be congratulated upon affording Intelligent Rockford peo-pie such a treat. They are considering tho feasibility of Bocurlng Prof. Hazzen for a conne of lectures, They would certainly des-M've hearty support and encouragement.